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Floridaâ€™s School Prayer Law â€“ The Devil Is In the Details, Literally

Floridaâ€™s School Prayer Law â€“ The Devil Is In the Details, Literally

A rally is being planned for January 25th in Tallahassee, Florida to support a law that Governor Rick Scott signed into law less than a year ago. The Inspirational Messages law essentially allows prayer in school. In the carefully worded final version, the law allows school districts to adopt a policy allowing for the reading of inspirational messages. To make sure that thereâ€™s not undue influence by school personnel, the students are the sole determinants of the message and the messenger. However, the authors had no idea that the message would be one that Satan might approve of.

While the mention of Satan might seem like the antithesis of the original intent of the law, Overlord Lucien Graves, a spokesperson for the Satanic Temple, told a reporter for the Palm Beach Post that his group actually promotes many of the same ideas that major religions do.

Satan does ask us to do good among each other and follow our own path to happiness as long as it doesnâ€™t encroach on others.

The groupâ€™s website explains its tenets, which do seem similar to many mainstream religions, with the one exception. They believe that God sent Satan as a proxy. The group is planning the rally as a way to promote themselves via the newly enacted law. Surely the authors of the bill never saw this one coming.

Even though the bill was successfully passed, many organizations urged the Governor not to sign the bill. They knew that even though the bill did not have the specific language â€śschool prayer,â€ť it could face a costly court battle under the First Amendmentâ€™s separation of church and state. They know that a case settled over 50 years ago banned this type of type of law. While several states have tested the ruling, itâ€™s been struck down every time.

Only time will tell whether this new twist on an old theme will make the Governor rethink his support of such a law. Perhaps heâ€™ll pause a bit the next time, and wonder if Satan is hiding in the next bill on religion. But maybe itâ€™s not such a bad thing. After all, they only want to promote happiness. Whatâ€™s wrong with that?

Satanists grateful for student prayers?

Temple officials are trying to raise awareness in an official
statement of how their group contributes to American civic life.
OneNewsNow discussed the subject with Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver, who
questions whether the organization even exists and will really
gather to pat Governor Rick Scott on the back.

"I think what it may well be are atheists or
secularists who want to make it appear that this law that Governor
Scott signed into law is actually going to allow Satanists to have
some kind of voice in the public school or in the public square,
and thus put pressure on the legislature to repeal the law," he
suggests.

The law passed by the legislature and signed into law allows
schools -- at the initiation of students -- and government
bodies to conduct prayer, something that has been repeatedly
challenged by atheist organizations.

"And, of course, the always resounding retort to that by
secularists is But the Satanists will be able to do the same
thing. In reality, that never really happens," says Staver.
"So I think in this particular case this probably isn't a real
Satanist group. This is probably a secularist group."

Staver believes it is more of a publicity stunt than anything
else in order to wipe the law off the books

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